Damn, I knew there was something I forgot

Some friends asked me if my German held up while I was in Deutschland and Österreich. Well...

My own evaluated scoreboard
Written German (not that I got to practise in writing German while I was there but based on my correspondences with Schnappi, K and HM)
- bearable with some grammar errors. I think I can rectify it if I concentrate on my German grammar books.

Reading German - not too bad, I see myself as reading at Kindergarten level. I had no problems reading German TV subtitles, some instructions and most signs

Understanding German speech - took me a long while, but I think I got it like 20% of the time when they talk fast, and 50% when they talk slowly. No problems understanding kiddie shows, so I ended up watching cartoons a lot in Germany. B1 was reduced to watching XXX ads on tv, because as he said, it was the only thing that didn't require understanding of German. Hahha.

Speaking German - BOMB! EPIC FAIL... It is either nervousness or some shit, but I had a lot of difficulty pushing words between my lips. Unless they were food-related. Then again, I never had problems ordering food in any language, even Korean.

In a nutshell, a long time ago, I decided to focus on reading and writing German (when I have the time) and neglected the speaking part of the house, as I told Schnappi. Point being, no one to actually speak German with in Singapore, whereas I could always buy books online or at Kinokuniya. This was not a good idea, as I found out when I went to Germany.

I bought some German kiddie videos on the last day, while B1 was moaning that I did not bring him to any Computer shop in Germany at all.  So I took him to Saturn at My Zeil, which I had asked HM before we went to Germany. Saturn is like Germany's Challenger. It sold computer and other electronic gadgets at eye-watering prices, and CDs and DVDs upstairs.

He bought Diablo II (I seriously don't remember the graphics being so lame) while I got some Richard Scarry and the Muppets Shows (Teil 1) in German. *Keeping fingers crossed for miracle now*